Sitting and Listening

When Jesus came to the home of Martha and Mary, the Word says about Mary, "...(She) sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what He was saying..."  (Luke 10:39).   Sitting and listening speaks of how she responded to the presence of Jesus.  There is a note of intimacy in this image.  There is a picture of eagerness to know and understand.  There is a picture which defines the meaning of being a disciple.  And among other things which might be said, the image of Mary sitting and listening models a posture of prayer.     

As a boy beginning to pray, it seemed that the only posture of prayer was on bent knees at my bedside.  It was where my Mother gave me my first lessons in praying.  I well remember that bedroom in Alamo where I prayed on my knees as a boy about to become a man..  And as I grew into manhood, I put away childish things and became a more sophisticated disciple who abandoned that uncomfortable posture by praying while sitting in a comfortable chair.    

To read the account of Mary and Jesus is to see her assuming what surely would become an uncomfortable position and, of course, modeling the reality of a submissive spirit.  While it is true that the posture of prayer is not more important than the praying, it would likely serve us all well to model the sitting and listening posture.  There is something about the act of kneeling which changes the mood of our approach to prayer.  To kneel is to declare we understand we are not in charge and that our hearts are open to receive whatever it is that the One before Whom we kneel might say to us.